French Medical Schools

[sumi808]

Hi All,

I am a medical student in Australia and I recently came into contact with a few medical students from France who were studying at the university of Paris.

I must say, they were AMAZING. They knew so much and were able to think and make diagnosis that even those in fellowship training didn't make until they had done a battery of tests. I have met med students from north america and even the pacific islands, but man the french med students were the best by a long shot.

Does anyone know what makes the french medical schools so good? I mean these guys were telling me how in their course in first year there are 7,000 students but by the end of 6th year only 200 graduate. They do 4 years of basic medical sciences, then 2 years of pure hospital. Additionally, internships are only given to the best of the best. Its a point of honour to be given an internship and their specialty training programs are different. There are no colleges as such, but rather you train under a single specialist and you become a specialist when they say you are ready !!

WHOA!!

I have never heard of this before, is this stuff true or are they pulling my leg?

Cheers

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[Medstart108]

I have a friend from france and he told me that french medicine has 1 year of premed. Anyone who wants to take it can and at the end of the year they take an exam. The medical schools select the best and everyone else is kicked out.

 

[diogotty]

The difference is that the selection (or numero clausulus ) is after the first year of medschool, instead of when you apply. So after the first year, there's an exam and only 10-15% passes. The rest only get one more chance to try, after which it's goodbye medschool.

Also, they give a lot of emphasis to physical examination (Sémiologie), which may explain why don't need so many CDT to get their diagnosis right. This isn't practical in the US due to lawsuits

As for residency, there's an exam at the end of 6th year, the ENC ( Examen Classant Nacional ), after which they're ranked by grade and choose their residency (there's no interview). Virtually everyone can get an internship. Sometimes not all posts are filled because some students prefer to wait another year when they're not accepted in the specialty they wanted.

(I know all this because I'm considering France for my residency)